Maybe design the head so that, even if it can’t wear Kanohi, it can be easily modified to do so.
Obviously this “back and forth” switching wouldn’t be ‘official’, and only the non-Kanohi-wearing version would really “count” for the contest, but at least it would be something “behind the scenes” for those who want to make another of Lariska’s species or something.
Honestly, no it wouldn’t be an issue for me. It would be cool if someone could pull it off, but it’s not something that would be a deciding factor for my vote.
I’d go for the latter.
Honestly, I’m curious about something. When it comes to the semantics of “didn’t wear a mask,” does Hydraxon count as “wearing a mask”? Because Hydraxon’s set comes with a mask, it’s just not a Kanohi. Depending on how this is described in canon, maybe Lariska could be the same way, with her MOC having a “mask” that isn’t actually a Kanohi. Just a thought.
its a hard question since we know so little about her(athletic and agile, about toa sized, teal armor, one all robotic arm and at least has the capability of wearing a mask)
its really hard because I literally envision a vortixx like roodaka in my mind when i try to visualize her.
my only suggestions are that her secondary color be black underneath the teal, and that a lot of attention be paid to the head design so as to make it unique to her/her kind but also, as was said, capable of accommodating a mask.
Unique, original head designs is priority one for me. If it comes down to it, Kanohi integration would be cool, but I’d be totally chill without it.
“In-Universe” appearance is my preference. These are canon contests, not set design contests. (Not to deride how cool a well-integrated gear function can be).
So basically I’m echoing the sentiments of the people above. 
I actually feel like Hydraxon is pretty comparable to Lariska’s species in a number of ways - he’s a good example of the sort of thing I want to see from her MoC, although obviously slanted a bit more to her skills and profession in the character design department, and a fair touch shorter. 
Lol, I remember when I first read Birth of a Dark Hunter it was '08 and for some reason I couldn’t not see her as Giant Green Gavla.
please nobody actually do that tho
Behold, the canon Lariska.
I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that’s his actual, built-in face.
Also, I have an interesting idea: what if her mechanical arm was CCBS? Although that might be a bit too bulky for Lariska’s body type.
I think CCBS shells are too smooth for something that stands out as completely mechanical. I’d go for something more greebly.
I suppose it depends. CCBS is good for sleek, high-tech mechanical, whereas technic/G1 pieces are good for more primitive-looking machinery. We don’t know where she got her arm or who built it, but I feel like she probably cobbled it together herself, or some dark hunter medic made it for her, so I’m going the primitive/grungy look with mine.
EDIT: and I’ve built an arm. Primarily technic based, has gear functions in two places. It looks pretty messy and can’t articulate well, so I’m probably gonna scrap it and abandon the ‘gear function’ idea altogether, but I figured I’d post it anyway.
I did that for my old Lariska MOC in order to emphasize that it doesn’t belong to her body, but since then I’ve realized - robots in the MU do not look much different than MU beings, and rebuilding is a thing MU beings can do. Hence even something robotic would probably not look too out of place in terms of style.
We don’t know canonically, but given that the DHs did a lot of body modification on their members, they probably did have a specialist for such things.
Also a very interesting arm design. Wanted to do something wit gears as well, originally, but poseability is really a problem then.
Because one thing maybe worth mentioning is - it’s explicitly mentioned (in Time Trap, I belive?) that Lariska was surprisingly unencumbered by her mechanical arm. Which indicates to me that it’s at least as poseable as her natural arm, and probably also not too clunky. That unfortunately doesn’t make it very easy to build something that looks suitably mechanical…
Yeah, I think I may end up just having to give her something that’s like her other arm, but with slightly different armour/fingers. I’ll also probably keep it grey/silver just to make it visually distinct. I know she could easily have painted it, but honestly if you’re gonna give a character a robot arm it should stand out from the rest of them IMO, even if said character is partially mechanical themselves.
I support this.
No. As long as it looks cool, it doesn’t much matter if it can wear a Kanohi or not. I haven’t yet seen a definite canon description that says Lariska can or can’t wear Kanohi, so unless someone can show me one I think either way works. Even if she can wear Kanohi, I don’t see any particular need to build her as Kanohi-compatible.
I like bright colors, so a bright handle is cool. That being said, I don’t think it should clash with her color scheme.
That’s awesome! I was planning on building a gear function into the mechanical arm too, but it’d probably be far more rudimentary than your concept design…
However, I think Lariska’s arm is pretty advanced. She can do complicated gymnastics without it impacting her, so it must function essentially as well as a real arm–or she’s just that good. Either way, I don’t think the Dark Hunters are amateur mechanics or amateurs at anything. They’re pretty professional for what they do.
Further to my earlier post about dropping the gear function, here’s arm V2. Still greebly and industrial, but more posable and robust. The nature of the elbow allows it to articulate in two degrees of motion now, whereas the old design only moved on a single axis.
I think the joint would fit Lariska pretty well.
That elbow joint is suspiciously similar to the one on Helryx that is giving everyone grief. Does it hold up when posing?
(I’d image it does, but I thought the same thing about Helryx…)
Either way, it’s a really cool joint.
I prefer the look of the original arm, but at the same time, I think that Lariska should be very flexible/posable, so that she can pull of some of the acrobatic poses people would want to put her in.
I haven’t had any issues with it yet. It only moves when I choose to move it, and her weapons are likely going to be very light, so I don’t foresee it falling off.
I’m gonna agree with Atobe_Brick on this one: I liked the first one better aesthetically, but posability is an important consideration. I really don’t know about the Metru armor on the forearm there, though.
It’s not necessarily final, but the arm looked very incomplete without it IMO. I’ll try out of alternatives.
Also yeah, the old one had a cool look, but I just don’t think it was worth it for the poor possibility, and the fact that it threatened to fall apart every time I moved it. A lot of the axles running through it are held in by friction alone.
Pretty thorough list
